Will Trump join Putin’s international white nationalist movement?

Not only did the far-right anti-immigrant party recently sign a “cooperation pact” with Russian president Vladimir Putin; but the leader of the Freedom Party, Heinz-Christian Strache, was just in New York City paying homage to Il Duce, Jr., Donald Trump’s embattled National Security Adviser, and resident conspiracy-theorist-adherent, Gen. Michael Flynn.

The news did not go unnoticed in America. Former presidential candidate Evan McMullin, a Republican patriot of sorts (McMullin, a former CIA officer and Hill staffer, ran for president as an independent in a bid to thwart Trump), noticed the coincidence of the Austrian extremists reaching out to both Moscow and Trump.

McMullin’s second comment, about Putin “creating an international white nationalist movement” is chilling, and I fear, spot on. Trump has had repeated brushes with white nationalists / white supremacists / racism during his presidential run. Who can forget Judge Curiel, the Khan family, Trump labeling Mexican immigrants “rapists,” suggesting that African-Americans all live in the ghetto (so “what do they have to lose”), Trump picking Alt Right (white supremacist) publisher Steve Bannon for his top White House strategist, or Trump’s openly-antisemitic closing ad?

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Even more troubling is what McMullin suggests, that this is part of an effort by Vladimir Putin to create an “international white nationalist movement.” And while it might at first seem out of sorts for a Russian leader to ally with white nationalists (Russian history and culture is decidedly anti-Nazi because of Russia’s harrowing experience with Hitler in World War II), this wouldn’t be the first time Putin used neo-Nazi movements to advance his policy goals. For years, Putin used Russian and Ukrainian neo-Nazis to further his anti-LGBT policies.

So Putin has no problem cozying up to Nazis when it suits his purposes, the same way he’s now cozying up to other far-right (and some far-left) extremists across the globe. Donald Trump has shown an inexplicable interest in defending Putin personally, and Russia generally, often at the cost of America’s own national interest. And top Trump aide, Gen. Flynn, is meeting with European racist leaders at the same time that Vladimir Putin is forming an international alliance with the same.

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John AravosisFollow me on Twitter: @aravosis | @americablog | @americabloggay | Facebook | Instagram | Google+ | LinkedIn. John Aravosis is the Executive Editor of AMERICAblog, which he founded in 2004. He has a joint law degree (JD) and masters in Foreign Service from Georgetown; and has worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, the United Nations Development Programme, and as a stringer for the Economist. He is a frequent TV pundit, having appeared on the O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline, AM Joy & Reliable Sources, among others. John lives in Washington, DC. John's article archive.